Will Smith Review, based on a true story: not the moment of the mask we hoped

In the start of the release of his first album in two decades, Will Smith He revealed the advice he received from the top of the hip-hop. Speaking with the Sirius XM radio station, he explained it Jay-Z He told him that he “be faithful to your story” while Kendrick Lamar He said: “Say only that s *** have always been frightened to say.”

Sound advice. At his heights as rapper, Smith was not exactly the most difficult guy in the room. Instead, his ability resided in his airy playful, his fault, even his ease with his family (notoriously, did not swear in his music). As a couple with his POP population of sampling songs, often from his native colleague of Philadelphia Dj Jazzy Jeff, Smith contributed to marketing hip-hop, also winning the first Grammy ever for the best rap performance.

There is also a lot of material to draw from. In his first career as an actor, Smith was worshiped as The new Prince of Bel-Air Then, decades later, impressed by a winner of the Oscar winner in Re Richard, About the father of the Williams sisters. But his 2022 Oscar victory would become famous for the moment he slapped Chris Rock Beyond a joke about his wife’s shaved wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, in front of a stunned Hollywood audience and spectators around the world. Smith quickly became a non -grateful person in the entertainment sector, while his unconventional wedding remained the kick of infinite jokes.

AS Based on a true story It arrives teeming for possibilities… Could it be a moment of raw and cathartic mask by the man who was once one of America’s most precious (and bankable) artists?

Unfortunately not. With texts like “Who the f *** Will Smith Do you think it is? “Above Hoedown’s strange electronic electronic trace” int. Barbershop – Day ”, it is clear that this is not about to be another Great Willie style, and could offer a peek behind the person. Distribute the setting of a black barber, Jazzy Jeff and the comedian Sketch B Simone join Smith in a step forward and forth on all control, the gossip and the Smith turbulence have endured.

Once the opening phrase that induces the moan “Will Smith is canceled” is overcome, there is a lot Enjoy the cartoon track and incredibly brazen and incredibly brazen. He turns to his monumental work rate, his family life, the Oscars, the echoes of the voices and the conversations around Industrial and political racism of respectability They were widespread in the speech in 2022 (“” I heard that he won the Oscar but had to return it ” /” and you know they just did this *** because it is black “).

But from then on, the album loses clarity: he mentions the trauma (there is a rather adorable trace with Teyana Taylor to overcome difficult times), but Smith does not really seem comfortable with self -gallstone beyond the aphorism. There is a line through faith and spirituality, with various “sermons” on the overcoming of internal adversities and the interceptions of the slightly adjacent Gospel, who profess Smith’s devotion not only in God but also in himself. “I believe in me as if it were religion, but I am the only one who converts / conversations with the congregation, the writing is in the verse”, offers “beautiful scars”, with a delivery that in the end is overcome by the guest star Big Sean.

Smith is still a solid rapper, but all this seems more postulated than what Jay and Kendrick were encouraging. Of course, there are intriguing small cracks through the veneer that involve that it has been at the limit. He says that the whole world against him on “bulletproof”, and launches the slightly tense suggestion that can never be said if he is bleeding “to make it easy”. But elsewhere on the same track, he Opti for vague banality and hackney on bankruptcy and redemption (“Life launches punches, you have to roll with it”). It is the type of banal and a half cooked line that affects throughout the album: “the harder the fall, the higher it rises” on “you can do it”; “You don’t have to be perfect to deserve love” on the closing track, “The Reverend (Woa Sermon)”.

Based on a true story It is part of an album trio that Smith plans to fall this year; This “season” is entitled “Rave in the Wasteland”. The track of the same title is preceded by an interlude in which the “reverend” urges us to find joy and energy in overturning our internal darkness (the second season, incidentally, will be called “The Gift of Madness”).

It seems right that Smith wanted to exorcise in recent years, unpacking his abuse perceived by both the press and the public. It is just a pity that he has chosen to do it with almost inspirational songs that don’t scrarot. This was an opportunity for the raping without ether and a bold experimentation that still exists in the rebound freedom of the musical universe once playful of Smith. Unfortunately, Based on a true story It is simply not true.